Before The Goodbye
by steptacular
Summary: Clark returns home after graduating from college. But what has changed, who are his friends, who's still around, and what does he plan on doing with the rest of his life?


Title: Before The Goodbye – Chapter 1  
  
Author: steptacular  
  
Email: andre@gensteps.co.uk  
  
Notes: This story takes place 8 years after "Pilot", after Clark has already graduated from college.  
  
Rating: G  
  
Disclaimer: This is just my take on the characters and something that I would like to see happen on the show, doesn't mean it will so don't flog me! (  
  
Thanks BUNCHES to Tresca and Wubba for beta'ing for me!  
  
Feedback! Almost as appreciated as a Lexadillo!  
  
  
  
  
  
The night was dark with only the moon to light the path back to his parent's house. Although he had been here 6 months earlier during his Christmas vacation, Clark felt like he hadn't seen the Kent Farm in years. Clark stopped by the sign that welcomed people in and looked around. So many memories were coming back to him now, so many things he had wanted to forget.  
  
It was late and his mom and dad were sleeping. He didn't want to wake them up, but he had forgotten his house keys on the dinner table. Super abilities be damned, they had never helped to improve his memory. Sure he could use his new "gift" and just enter through his bedroom window, but at the moment he didn't want to. He wanted to be alone to think. The memories that were burning in his head wanted to be freed; wanted to remind him who he was.  
  
He slowly walked up to his barn, his "fortress of solitude". It was dark in here too, but his vision helped light the path to the stairs, the stairs that led to the loft he had spent so many hours sitting in, day after day, evaluating his problems, his love for a girl he could never have. How easy it had all been done, but also, how very selfishly. Since he had graduated high school and moved on to college he had avoided coming up here during all his visits, but it was still clean. No dust to be seen on any of his furniture. He smiled for a second, wondering how often his mother came up here to clean, or how often his father came up here to make sure nothing was falling apart.  
  
He sat down on his couch. On this couch had sat so many of his friends, Lana, Lex, Pete, Chloe…So many of them, yet now only one was still around. He gazed over to the opening where the moon shone brightly through. His telescope sat there, illuminated in the silvery glow. He got up and walked over to it, his feet making a soft thumping on the wooden floor.  
  
He looked through the telescope and started at the stars. They were so bright and there were so many of them. He had come from a distant star. He knew now he belonged up there and he could reach them if so he desired, but he didn't right now. He sighed and moved the telescope to its old position. Instead of pointing at the sky it pointed directly across the fields and to the house across, the Lang house.  
  
He pulled away from the telescope and chuckled to himself.  
  
"You don't need it you idiot," he thought. He began to concentrate and slowly but surely things began shifting around him. It felt like he was going out of his body but he knew he wasn't. He saw the fields speeding past him, until finally it looked like he was standing right on the porch where he and Lana had spent countless nights talking; the porch where they had shared their first kiss; the porch he had collapsed on his knees and cried loudly, loud enough to send echoes through the fields when he heard about….  
  
But no, he wasn't really there, his vision had just magnified so intensely it made it appear like he was. He blinked and he was standing back in his loft. He stared at the dark night sky and tried to figure out what time it was, but all he knew was that it was late. He had so much he wanted to do before he left, but Lana was sleeping, Pete still hadn't returned from school in Coast City, Lex was gone for good, Whitney….he felt so guilty he hadn't called him for the past couple of months out of his own greed to avoid life, and Chloe…that's what he would do. That's what he needed to do, he would go visit Chloe because she always understood, she always knew where to guide him in life. He took one last look around and considered how he'd get to her. He didn't want to run, and he definitely didn't want to…no, no he'd walk and clear his head before getting to her. That way he could apologize and try to find the right things to say.  
  
"Time goes by but we stand still," he whispered to himself and began descending the steps. 


End file.
